Festival Time for Callum in Portmeirion and Battle

Travelling to Portmeirion in Wales he attended Festival No. 6, which brought together musical performances ranging from Rag N Bone Man and the Bootleg Beatles to the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. A highlight for Callum was a set by the Gypsies of Bohemia.

Callum liked the way the festival was wrapped around the quirky village of Portmeirion, famed for its Italian inspired architecture designed and built by Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975. There were stages in the village and surrounding fields and woods and a floating lake stage.

He enjoyed sampling street food from around the world and saw that top chefs were making guest appearances in some of the village restaurants. Unlike many festivals he has attended, there were no queues for the hot showers, and the toilets were clean and regularly maintained!

Amongst Callum’s musical discoveries was Ap Cooper, a Welsh singer/song writer, and he enjoyed the carnival themed around the 50th anniversary of The Beatles album Sergeant Pepper, which marched through the middle of the village. He says, ‘I had a great time in a part of the country I had never visited before, and would thoroughly recommend the festival to readers.’

A few weeks later Callum went to the Art and Music Festival in Battle attending its opening performance – The Winter Giant. This featured a giant wooden puppet, which Callum says, ‘the puppet masters brought to life by using levers and it reminded me of film productions by Tim Burton.’ Callum enjoyed the event, which also featured bees and falling snow, and he felt it was particularly suitable for a younger audience.